Journal Article

Delivering exercise medicine to cancer survivors: has COVID-19 shifted the landscape for how and who can be reached with supervised group exercise?

Boisvert, Cassie, Lyons, Karen S., Mitri, Zahi, Li, Fuzhong, Meyers, Gabrielle, Eckstrom, Elizabeth, Campbell, Kristin L., Beer, Tomasz M., Winters-Stone, Kerri M.

2022

Overview

Purpose Due to stay-at-home orders during COVID-19, we transitioned supervised, group, in-person resistance training interventions in two clinical trials in cancer survivors to live, online delivery using video-conferencing technology. We describe the feasibility, preliminary efficacy, and safety of live online group training and compare to in-person training. Methods Adherence (% sessions attended), retention (% participants completing intervention), and safety (# adverse events) data of resistance training groups from two randomized controlled trials in cancer survivors that participated before or during the COVID-19 pandemic were collated. Participants were post-treatment breast cancer survivors and their spouses ( n  = 62) and prostate cancer survivors ( n  = 32) (age range: 38–82 years). During COVID-19, delivery of supervised, group resistance exercise sessions was delivered live online via video-conference. Preliminary evidence for training efficacy was assessed by chair stand performance over the 6-month intervention. Results Feasibility of online resistance training was better than in-person for both studies (adherence: 86% vs 82% and 91% vs. 81% and retention 95% vs. 80% and 92% vs. 84% for online and in-person classes). Improvements in chair stand time were similar in prostate cancer and spouse groups that trained online vs. in-person, except for breast cancer survivors who improved more with in-person training (7% vs. 14% for online vs. in-person). Safety was similar between formats (12 vs. 11 adverse events for online vs. in-person). Conclusion Supervised, in-person group resistance training can be feasibly adapted for live, online delivery and could help broaden approaches to exercise delivery in cancer survivors, including older adults. Trial registration The studies described in this commentary were registered on ClinicalTrials.gov on August 3, 2018 (NCT03630354) and on October 30, 2018 (NCT03741335).

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Adult / Adults / Aged / Aged, 80 and over / Breast cancer / Cancer / Cancer Survivors / Care and treatment / Clinical research / Clinical training / Clinical trials / Commentary / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / Critical incidents / Efficacy / Epidemics / Evidence-based medicine / Exercise / Exercise Therapy / Feasibility / Groups / Humans / Internet / Intervention / Male / Medical colleges / Medical research / Medical treatment / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Middle Aged / Neoplasms - therapy / Nursing / Nursing Research / Older people / Oncology / Pain Medicine / Pandemics / Personal safety / Prostate / Prostate cancer / Quality of Life / Registration / Rehabilitation Medicine / Resistance / Retention / Safety / SARS-CoV-2 / Spouses / Strength training / Survivor / Training / Video conferencing / Weight training